Fourteen states would miss out on $8.4 billion in Medicaid dollars: study

By Russ Britt

Fourteen states would miss out on a collective $8.4 billion in federal subsidies and spend $1 billion more on uncompensated care without participation in Medicaid expansion programs under President Obama’s health-care overhaul plan, a new study shows.

In a study published in Health Affairs magazine Monday, Rand Corp. says an additional 3.6 million people will be left uninsured in those states that have opted not to take part in the expansion.

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Thirteen of the states aren’t participating in Medicaid expansion and include: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin. The 14th included in the study, Iowa, is developing an alternative to the Medicaid expansion. All states are eligible to jump in and take part in the Medicaid expansion at a later date.

Carter Price, a Rand mathematician and the study’s lead author, said it was initiated right after the Supreme Court voted in June 2012 to uphold the law officially known as the Affordable Care Act. The 14 states were included in the examination because they had indicated they would not support the Medicaid expansion program, which increases the income level of those eligible for the federal insurance plan for the impoverished.

The new standard to qualify for Medicaid is 138% of the federal poverty level. While the federal government now pays for roughly 57% of the cost of Medicaid, leaving the rest to states, it will cover all the costs of those included in the expansion at the start and gradually reduce that to 90%. The ultimate savings to all 50 states could reach as much as $18.1 billion a year.

The study didn’t include the six states that are leaning toward opposition of the Medicaid expansion — Alaska, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.

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